just fitted an electro-harmonix 12ay7, (was a 12ax7) in my fender blues deville in the v1 pre amp stage.
these amps have an amazing tone, dreamy hendrix bluesy sound with no distortion, trouble is above 2 on the volume knob they blast the windows out!
pissed the bass player off as it was soooo loud, so resorted to a 30w ss fender champion dsp, he was happier, but i wasn't .
the new valve has tamed the beast slightly, and i can now get to 6 without the wife honking, can't wait till next practice night.

hey marcus, i've got the tweed covered made in usa 2x12.
got into the tone whilst jamming with a guy i used to work with.
i'd turn up at his place armed with an arsenal of pedals and we'd kick off,
then one afternoon tried it with no pedals and i was blown away by the true
chimy clean tone, (his was a hot rod deville).
managed to pick up the blues deville locally and love it.
the volume control is just too sensitive though, very quiet upto around 1 1/2
then by 2 blows your ears in!
reading on the web i came across the 12ay7 change, so decided to give it a try, like i say, definately more subdued without losing any noticeable tone.
also using the channel 2 input drops off a bit of the initial volume.
give it a try, i picked the ay7 up on ebay for around ?14.
what amp do you use for gigging/practice?

hey marcus, i've got the tweed covered made in usa 2x12.
got into the tone whilst jamming with a guy i used to work with.
i'd turn up at his place armed with an arsenal of pedals and we'd kick off,
then one afternoon tried it with no pedals and i was blown away by the true
chimy clean tone, (his was a hot rod deville).
managed to pick up the blues deville locally and love it.
the volume control is just too sensitive though, very quiet upto around 1 1/2
then by 2 blows your ears in!
reading on the web i came across the 12ay7 change, so decided to give it a try, like i say, definately more subdued without losing any noticeable tone.
also using the channel 2 input drops off a bit of the initial volume.
give it a try, i picked the ay7 up on ebay for around ?14.
what amp do you use for gigging/practice?

Cool... thanks. I'll give that a try.

Gig wise, depends upon the room. Usually an old Magnatone 460 or 67 Fender Vibrolux for larger rooms, 65 Deluxe (non reverb) or Blues Junior for smaller rooms. Use the Blues Junior for practice too.... on of the most versatile little amps around - loud too when it needs to be. Only think missing on it is a vibrato circuit

interesting, i had a blues junior about 2 years ago and sold it on a week after getting it,(that's one of the good points with ebay ).
the aforementioned bass players son uses one, and gets plenty of gigs all round the town.
i've just started looking at some of the modelling amps like the line6 spider valve, egnater tweaker (rare second hand over here), both more controllable
for small pub/club gigs with a good tone.
doing an outdoor gig next monday (bank holiday) and was going to fire up the deville, but it seems the amps/drum kit/pa are already set up on the stage, all the bands use the same gear, just bring your own pedals and axe.
do you get many live bands locally?
there were 40 bands playing in my home town last weekend, which is not uncommon, great music scene.
happy days

yea always a bit daunting plugging into an unknown amp in front of an audience, but there's only a one hour turnaround for each act, gives about 45
minutes playing time, so they don't encourage people to bring their own gear.
just going to take a few pedals, blues driver and a dd20 and maybe a compressor.
nice talking to you, let me know how you get on with the valve switch.
cheers, martin.